Truthish or Falsey: "Jennie's Story"

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The young woman stares into the camera as ominous piano music plays in the background.

“When I was 18, I was raped,” she says. “I don’t know what I would have done if I had become pregnant.”

“As governor, Bill Brady would outlaw abortion,” the narrator says. “And Brady opposed any exceptions, even for victims of rape and incest.”

“Forcing a rape victim to carry a pregnancy is unthinkable, and scares me to death,” the woman continues.

Abortion has not been an issue in the governor’s race, because there’s not much a governor can do to stop it. The Supreme Court took away a state’s right to ban abortion back in 1973. However, Bill Brady’s stance on some social issues has been an issue, because he is much more conservative than the average Illinoisan, and especially the average Chicago-area resident.

But is this "rape ad" a fair attack?

As its source, the ad cites a survey by the Illinois Federation for Right to Life, which was distributed to Republican politicians in advance of the February primary. The first question was, “Would you sign a law that would prevent abortions, other than to prevent the death of the mother?”

Brady answered yes to that question. He also answered yes to the other 25 questions on the survey. Among them:

Would you sign a law to require parental notification before abortions are performed on minors?

Would you sign a “Woman’s Right To Know” law requiring that doctors provide information on the development of the unborn child, alternatives to abortion, and medical risks of abortion before an abortion is performed.

Would you veto the establishment or funding of "school based clinics" in secondary schools, unless they are explicitly prohibited from performing abortion counseling or referral or referring to any entity which counsels for, or refers for, or does abortions?

Would you veto the marketing of "RU 486" for abortions in the state of Illinois?

Bill Brady makes no bones about the fact that he’s a right-to-life social conservative. In Bill Brady’s Perfect Illinois, there would be no abortion clinics.

But Brady has to know that the Democratic-controlled General Assembly will never send him any of the bills Right to Life queried him about. So it’s safe for him to say yes and satisfy his base, because he’ll never be asked to back up his words.

So we rate this ad “Kinda Truthish,” because Brady wants to do what the woman in the ad says he wants to do. But there’s no way her fears about his governorship will ever come true.